Developing habits

I remember reading somewhere that it takes 28 days for an action to turn into a habit.  I'm not sure about that number; it seems oddly specific and very even and round at the same time.  But the basic concept certainly makes sense.  If you can do something every day for, say, a month, you should be able to make it a habit.  So I thought I'd work on developing some habits this month.  (I realize I'm a week in; there's a reason I need a gimmick to develop productive habits.)

Why this month, with all it's holidays and holiday preparations, school events, extra-curricular activities, and general craziness?  Partly because if I put it off, it won't get done at all.  And partly because November is National Novel Writing Month (check it out at NaNoWriMo.org.)  The idea is that you write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  This comes out to 1,667 words per day, which for me is about two hours of writing at a nice, steady pace, with occasional short pauses for thought.

I've done NaNoWriMo every year since my daughter was one year old.  Every year I've managed to write the 50,000 words, sometimes just hours before the deadline.  The first four years of words, with extensive editing throughout non-writing months, became a novel that I think is publishable--as soon as I can find an agent to represent it.  So the first habit I'm developing this month is agent queries.  Most agents have a 6 to 12 week response time.  My goal is to submit one query every week.  That way, I'll have 8 or so queries out at a time, with responses coming in and queries going out at a good pace.

Habit number two is the writing itself.  While I have always completed the 50,000 words, it was never at an even pace.  Two years ago I fell 10,000 behind and caught it up in one marathon day of writing.  This year, I mean to develop the habit of writing every day.  The goal is to write between 1,667 and 2,000 words every day, but the important thing will be to sit down and get words down on every day, no matter what.

Third, I'd like to become more consistent with this blog.  I think liking it to the above two habits should be manageable and productive.  Blog writing can be a nice "cool-down" from working on the novel, a way to wrap up the writing session.  On the other hand, maintaining a post every day seems daunting and unmanageable in terms of projects.  Hence the combination with the query habit--I will aim for one post per week.   I can submit a query on Mondays, and post on Fridays.  Once the habit is established, I will work on more frequent posts, but for now the important thing is to start posting with some regularity.

Fourth is a habit I'm not looking forward to at all, but one which is important for my health.  You see, for several months now I've been on the 4 Hour Body diet, as described by Tim Ferriss in his book.  At first, it went swimmingly.  I lost 30 lbs. in 3 months, and was feeling great.  Then I stalled.  Despite sticking to the diet and following all the rules (double checking and triple checking and quadruple checking...), I could not lose another ounce.  And I was only halfway to my healthy weight!  So I've decided it's time to plunge in (you'll see the pun there in a minute) to some of the optional parts of the weight loss program.  I've added the supplements, and the specific exercises he recommends.  Now it's time to add the cold showers for cold thermogenesis.  Every morning I will wake up and take a cold shower.  (Ugh, I'm shivering just writing that.)

So those are the habits I'm developing this month.  Do you have a wish-list of habits?  Why not pick a few and just jump in?